It was on display, but it was hardly unimaginable. The horror show we all were waiting for finally arrived on the third day at the VCA stadium in Nagpur and before anyone could have realised the severity of it, it was over. In a flash.
Coming out to bat in their second innings after conceding a first innings deficit of 223 runs, Pat Cummins and his men were expected to at least stand their ground if not able to counter attack India on a tricky third day pitch during the first Test match of Border Gavaskar Trophy 2023.
But an unending despondency took over as soon as the wickets started tumbling. By the time the horror show was over, the visitors were bowled out for 91 and it took just a little over two hours to accomplish. Only Steve Smith managed to hang on but not before he cut a sorry figure, running out of partners too fast.
It would have been even more quick had the umpire chose not to extend the session by an over or so.
There were two factors at play here-first the fear factor regarding a dust bowl pitch and second Ravi Ashwin who kicked off the show by getting Usman Khawaja with a beauty. He pushed his length initially and then flighted the fifth delivery which was edged straight to Virat Kohli at slips. Once he departed, the writing was on the wall and David Warner and Marnus Labuscghagne didn’t even resist.
The delivery that Labuscghagne got from Jadeja was too good but what about Alex Carey or Matt Renshaw? The former was guilty of putting his hands up too soon. He played the sweep the umpteenth time as if he didn’t care! It seemed he wanted to get back to the pavillion rather than grinding it out and making a name for himself.
Coming back to Warner, the left-hander looked at sea right from the start. So, when Ashwin trapped him in front, even he knew he was gone! Smith at the other end convinced him to take the DRS but his reaction after watching the replay on giant screen told the story of the whole Aussie dressing room. It was as if Warner was saying: ‘The game is rigged.’
With the score reading 34/3, Ashwin went for the kill, dismissing Renshaw and Peter Handscomb—both LBW! When he dismissed Carey—again an LBW—he had picked up his 31st Test fifer. Thereafter Jadeja removed skipper Pat Cummins with the one that just moved away. Axar Patel also chipped in.
Nevertheless, Australia could have been bundled out a lot earlier had Jadeja not bowled a no ball on which he cleaned up the only batter to have shown some spine–Steve Smith.
With Mohammed Shami removing Scott Boland, the humiliation was complete. Australia couldn’t even reach a three figure mark (91 all out), but it was the shear speed with which they folded up that caught everyone’s eye.
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